Newburgh teachers OK contract, defer raises

CITY OF NEWBURGH — Concerns about the teachers' evaluation took front-and-center as the mid-Hudson's largest teachers' union ratified a labor agreement Tuesday night.

Pauline Liu

CITY OF NEWBURGH — Concerns about the teachers' evaluation took front-and-center as the mid-Hudson's largest teachers' union ratified a labor agreement Tuesday night.

The Newburgh Teachers' Association fought to have the district adopt a set of teacher evaluation procedures in exchange for some concessions to help close the remainder of the district's looming budget gap.

Under the terms of the new contract, which expires in June 2014, the nearly 2 percent step pay increase that the rank-and-file began receiving this month will be deferred by half a year until February.

"We really wanted some protection under the teachers' evaluation, and the district really wanted to save a little money," said Art Plichta, teachers' union president. After the vote, Plichta drove across town to deliver the news in person to the Board of Education, which was meeting at the district office.

"Thank you for sharing the wonderful news with us this evening," said Dawn Fucheck, school board president, in response. "I think it helps everyone to move forward in the district and for students as a whole," she added.

The news was especially welcome since the teachers' union nixed an earlier offer from the district in May. At the time, the district had a $1.9 million budget gap.

There had been some discussion at the start of the year about closing a school or reducing the full-day kindergarten for 900 kids to a half-day program to help the cash-strapped district curb spending. The school board decided against taking those painful measures.

Instead, the district agreed to offer retirement incentives to teachers. Fifty teachers took the incentives, which resulted in a savings of about $840,000 to the district, said Mike Pacella, assistant superintendent for business,

Pacella, who was contacted before the ballots were counted, said he couldn't comment on how much money the new teachers' contract would save the district. Some close to the negotiations, though, believe it approaches $1 million.

"Any remaining budget gap would be made up with fund balance," said Pacella.

The votes were cast by some of the 1,030 members of the Newburgh Teachers Association. Some of the union's 700 retired teachers also cast votes by absentee ballot. The actual breakout of the votes cast will be posted to the union's website in a few days, said Plichta.

The provisions in the new agreement include detailed procedures on how teachers can appeal the results of their performance reviews.

"We believe this will improve fairness with the teachers' evaluation system," said Plichta.

pliu@th-record.com

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